How to Turn Off Background App Refresh on an iPhone 6

There are certain features on your iPhone that can cause your battery to drain unnecessarily. These are usually features that occur in the background, or are features that you may not even notice. One item that falls into the former category is called “Background App Refresh.”

Many of the apps on your iPhone pull their content from the Internet, and much of that content is updating continuously. In an effort to keep the app up to date, that app may choose to refresh its content in the background. This can drain your battery. If you do not think that this data refresh in the background is necessary, or if you are looking for some simple adjustments that can improve your iPhone’s battery life, then follow the steps below to disable the Background App Refresh setting on your iPhone 6.

Disable Background App Refresh on Your iPhone 6 and Save Some Battery Life

Step 1: Tap the Settings icon.

Step 2: Select the General option.

Step 3: Tap the Background App Refresh button.

Step 4: Tap the button to the right of Background App Refresh to turn it off. Background App Refresh is turned off in the picture below.

Additional Notes

If you don’t want to turn off Background App Refresh completely, then you can choose to turn it off for individual apps instead.

Background App Refresh can occur on Wi-Fi and cellular, so it may be using cellular data, which is another good reason to turn it off.

You can also choose to enable Low Power Mode, which will also disable background app refresh.

Some apps that constantly refresh their data may appear to operate somewhat differently after you make this change. However, most of these apps will refresh thir content once you are actively using the app.